Friday, May 24, 2013

We are ONE!

Our "little" family

Okay, so they turned one last month, this post has been in the making for quite a while! The day before their birthday and the day of were quite emotional for me. I remember lying in the hospital bed wondering if this day would ever come, and fighting and willing that it would. There isn't a day that goes by that I do not think of how differently our lives could have turned out, that I don't remember how they fought so hard in the NICU, and that I do not think of all of the people that helped get us to where we are today. We are truly amazed at how blessed we are, and so very thankful! And yes, even on the days where I want to bang my head up against a brick wall (hey, I have to keep it real!).

Abby

Allie

Corbin

Carson

We chose to do a simple Mickey and Minnie themed party for their birthday (per Ella's request, eh... demand) and grill some burgers and hotdogs with close friends and family. The babies did really well, and Ella had a blast playing with all of her friends.They scored tons upon tons of clothes, a few toys, and best of all, DIAPERS! The babies devoured their cakes, especially Carson. Carson seems to have some slight sensory issues, so I thought for sure he would want nothing to do with the cold, slimy texture of the cake. He tore into it until there was absolutely nothing left. I loved watching them, they all had so much fun! The babies all slept great that night, despite my fears of the cake hurting their tummies and keeping them up. Overall, it was a perfect day, but I would be lying if I didn't say I was glad for it to be over- parties tend to stress me out!

Cake drunk Carson

Baby lovin'

One of our fav NICU nurses

Abby and her Mimi

Ella is getting really excited to start Pre-K this fall, she will be going to a private church program that has an awesome curriculum. She has attended there before for Mothers Day Out the year I was pregnant with the babies, and she loved it. The doctors advised us to pull her out once the babies came home because they were so premature, and they/we did not want her to bring home anything to the babies. I have enjoyed having her home this year and can not believe that she will be FOUR this summer! She adores the babies, even more so now that they can chase her around everywhere!

Big girl got her first haircut today!

Ella with one of her BFF's, Lylah

The babies are doing fabulous, they amaze me every day. We gradually started the switch to whole milk a few days before their birthday and they tolerated it great. They have refused to be spoon fed (especially Abby) the past month or so, and they just eat all finger table food now. We are going to see if they are ready to give up their bottles this weekend, so we will see how that goes! I'm not in a huge rush and do not mind if they keep them a few more months, but it's a fight to get them to drink them now, so I figured it would be a great time to try!

Abby is our tiny one and weighs about 18 pounds now. She lags a tad behind the others in large gross motor skills, but she is doing great in all other areas. She is very verbal, has been clapping and signing a couple words for the past couple of months, has been pulling to stand for quite a while, but will not stand independently for more than a couple of seconds. She has the funniest little personality and is so silly, and she loves to snuggle. She can give a really demonic sounding gremlin growl that creeps everyone out. Her favorite food is probably eggs and toast, and of course cheerios! She has 6 teeth with no others in sight.

Allie is a little bigger and weighs about 19 pounds now. She is extremely verbal, she can say Momma, Dadda, bye bye, more, uh oh, and dog. She can also sign more, milk, all done, eat, clap, and wave hooray. She stands independently for a bit and cruises along the walls and couch. I don't think it will be too much longer before she is running all over the house! She has the sweetest sounding voice, besides when she is screaming her crazy "give me what I want right now" scream that comes close to shattering the windows. Her favorite foods are bananas and toast. She has had 8 teeth for a couple months now, but no others on their way yet.

Corbin weighs about 20 pounds now. He is not as verbal as the girls but does babble a lot of different things. He also does not sign like the girls, and I can't get him to clap or wave goodbye either, he just looks at me and laughs hysterically. He does love to mimic fake sneezes though which is super cute. He stands independently and cruises along couches and walls, along with climbing up anything possible and destroying everything in his sight. He has the most infectious laugh and is a huge Mommas boy. His favorite food is toast. Notice a pattern here? At breakfast, after he eats all of his toast, he will scream his head off until he realizes you are not giving in and giving him more toast. Then he will start shoving all of the other food in his mouth by the fist fulls. He has had 8 teeth for a couple of months and is now cutting his bottom cuspid teeth, which have been the worse so far.

Carson weighs about 22 pounds now. He is not verbal at all and he worries me to absolute death. He does not babble, he doesn't make a peep besides laughing and razzing. I try not to worry, but this is something he should have started doing a looonnnggg time ago, so its hard not to. He passed his hearing screen, so I am having him evaluated by a speech therapist to see if there is anything we can do to help him along. He is very interactive with us, very playful and makes eye contact, so I am hoping it is simply just a speech delay. He has pulled to stand for a while but will not stand independently. His laugh is hilarious, he sounds just like Pee Wee Herman which is awesome. He does have some sensory issues to textures, he doesn't like grass, he doesn't like squiggly toys, shaving cream, etc, but he is making a lot of progress. His OT says that its a great sign that he has never cried at these things, he just pulls away. She thinks it is something that he will be able to work through and get over since he is so young and making progress already. His favorite food is anything and everything, he will eat whatever you put in front of him, and lots of it! He has his two bottom teeth with his top four about to pop through any day now.

It has been WAY too long since I have updated, so I will just end with a few pictures from the past few months, and try to be better about updating from now on!